Gamification increases user engagement; here are some reasons why gamified training helps you provide better care.
COVID-19 changed the way that home care agencies trained caregivers. According to this year’s Home Care Benchmarking Study, approximately 46% of providers added online caregiver training.
Some caregivers thrive in online learning formats while others don’t. Using gamified training, you’ll find that caregivers are more involved and participate in the process more than before.
What is gamification? It applies elements of games into non-gaming contexts such as marketing, education, etc. In training specifically, gamification can mean accumulating points or rewards, real-life clinical situations, and decision-making exercises, etc.
We’ve seen firsthand the effect that gamification has on training completion rates; our training programs include gamification options (such as progress bars and simulations) and averages 94% completion by learners. While other factors probably play into it, the gamification has a clear impact.
Learn how gamified training will improve your caregiver retention rates and how this training will improve client care.
Caregivers are more likely to complete training when it’s gamified.
It may seem difficult to balance state/federal training standards in home care while making the content engaging and exciting to caregivers. Each caregiver has a different schedule which can make in-person training difficult.
Leif Sørensen, a gaming industry expert, discussed in a TedTalk about the importance of gamification in organizational learning and presented an important finding: 70% of job-related education comes from on-the-job practice.
In caregiving, on-the-job practice shouldn’t rely too heavily on using client homes as a training room. It may present the wrong image to clients or deprive the caregiver of the leeway to learn from mistakes. Caregivers need a lifelike training experience to retain the knowledge.
The acuity of care of clients has increased, which necessitates the use of a comprehensive training platform. Gamification is a powerful tool that can help you achieve that standard.
This type of learning and training has proven to increase user engagement and participation. It’s using a progress bar to show caregivers how much is left in the training. Or it could mean getting points each time a caregiver logs in.
Gamified training alone doesn’t improve results; the critical element lies in understanding your caregivers’ motivations, aspirations, and goals.
Why is gamification an effective training tool? It puts them in charge of their training. Caregivers can get points and incentives based on completing real-life applications of clinical situations. Use gamified tools to help your caregivers understand expectations in clients’ homes with a comprehensive program designed for retention.
Gamified medical education can improve patient outcomes through retention.
Are you tracking how your patients progress and improve in condition while in your care? While home care is not yet subject to value-based payment models, you can improve operations by focusing on client outcomes. Higher retention rates create more consistency of care that in turn leads to better client outcomes.
Your caregivers come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences that shape their abilities to care for clients. Using a gamified platform, they can learn more, participate in learning and career paths that fast-track their growth, and be rewarded and recognized for their efforts.
In a study with graduate students in the medical field, the University of Alabama School of Medicine studied the effects of attrition through gamified medical training platforms. They found that “in ordinal regression analyses, completing more questions decreased, while postgraduate year 3 class and non-daily play increased odds of attrition.”
When students engaged more in the platform and answered more questions, they noticed higher retention rates. Those that participated less were more likely to discontinue their education.
The caregiver shortage is more noticeable now than ever. Your onboarding and training could be the deciding factor that keeps them around.
Help clients manage their conditions better with gamification.
Recent research has shown the benefits of digital platforms helping patients better manage and understand their health conditions. When your caregivers receive training and education from similarly gamified platforms, they can help create better outcomes for your clients.
Since many of your caregivers may be adept technology consumers, they can help clients navigate digital health platforms. Caregivers may already assist clients in dialing relatives’ phone numbers or showing them how to use FaceTime. Now they can help clients achieve better health outcomes.
With caregivers remaining more involved in the client care process, length of service will increase as well. Clients will understand the value that caregivers bring to their lives. Gamification is an important piece of that understanding.
This method of learning will help your caregivers immediately see the impact of their training. They didn’t learn it for the sake of learning it; caregivers participated in the training and are applying those skills when they care for clients.
Gamified digital health platforms have been helping your clients improve their conditions. Help your caregivers in tandem with your clients’ own efforts to make your client experience the best that it can be.
Training with gamification can lead to financial incentives and career pathways for caregivers.
Take a look at your training curriculum and compare it to the skills and conditions that your caregivers are caring for. Are they similar?
By making the training relevant to what caregivers will use in the immediate future, they will retain the knowledge. One of the caregivers we surveyed said: “I would like them to train the employees based on the clients.”
In an episode of our podcast with Sandi McCann, founder and CEO of Home Care of the Rockies, she discussed the importance of standardized training for her agency’s caregivers:
“We really needed a consistent set of training curriculum where caregivers could come together with each other and learn from one set of curricula…So, we created the training program as a learn-and-earn model.”
Related content: How Home Care of the Rockies Built a Caregiver Training Program that Retains 90% of Caregivers
Using gamified training, you can adapt your caregivers’ curriculum to reflect a learn-and-earn model too. This can help your caregivers become more agile and able to care for more clients.
Create a pathway for your caregivers to advance if they want to move up from being a caregiver. You could offer them a path that pushes them to become caregiver mentors and care managers. Caregivers could also be trained to become specialists in certain types of care that can differentiate your agency from others. This could include dementia and Alzheimer’s care, cooking, and palliative care.
57% of caregiver turnover happens in the first 90 days, and many have said that it would’ve been helpful to have a peer mentor or supervisor that they can talk to. Use gamified training as a medium to ensure standardized education across all positions in your home care agency to increase caregiver mobility, retention, and satisfaction.
Offer specific training paths that would help bridge the gaps between each job. When hiring a new caregiver, make sure they know what career options are available to grow and stretch their professional muscles.
Reward your caregivers when they complete training to keep them motivated. Recognition is an important element of a caregiver’s satisfaction. By recognizing and thanking them for their participation in training, you’ll be on the way to keeping your caregivers for the long haul.
Well-trained caregivers are happy caregivers.
Gamified training is not a silver bullet to solve all issues related to training; however, it is an excellent start to a meaningful continuing education program.
Training is easy to overlook in terms of the daily operations in a home care agency, but don’t underestimate its impact on your caregiver retention rates. According to new data from the thousands of caregiver surveys we conduct each month, caregivers’ top complaint in 2021 (even more than pay or scheduling) is a lack of training.
Benjamin Franklin once said: “Tell me, and I forget, teach me, and I may remember, involve me, and I learn.” Transitioning your caregivers into a gamified training platform will help them learn training material in a fun and engaging way while applying the knowledge they use.
How do you involve your caregivers in their learning?
